Florida police are defending the practice of having officers strip naked and engage in skin-to-skin contact after three people were arrested on prostitution charges earlier this month as part of a massage parlor sting operation.

The operation was part of on ongoing investigation into human trafficking, where woman - often Chinese - are trapped as sex slaves.

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center ranks Florida third in the nation for such cases.

Florida police argue nude stings are an important tool to bust sex traffickers

Critics of the practice worry that it crosses a line.

'That is the million-dollar question:
How far can they go?' added Eric Schwartzreich, a Fort Lauderdale
defense attorney. 'Where does the line get crossed?

'In general, I don't think it is a good idea to have your police officers naked while on duty.'

'This is not just an act of solicitation, but an organized crime
effort,' he told theSun-Sentinel. 'It is not just a street-walker. It is a more
sophisticated operation that requires a different mode of
investigating.'

The officers would pose as customers, stripping off their clothes and laying down on the massage table.

Defense attorneys argue the practice is unnecessary and complicates the trial

One officer, not identified, wrote in his report that Nikki 'brushed her hand across my penis' and 'made an up and down motion with her hand' to signal an offer for a sexual encounter.

The officer passed.

'Maybe next time,' he said.

Charlie Fuller, a retired Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent who runs the International Association of Undercover Officers called it a 'nasty, tough job.'

'The
prostitutes have a better intelligence system than any agency in the
world,' he said. 'You have to disrobe or they won't talk to you.'

'Sometimes officers have to make their own moral decision as it
relates what they feel comfortable with,' Flournoy said. 'But I have had
massages and they are unclothed. [These officers] are portraying
themselves not as police but as regular customers.'

Female officers also work undercover for prostitution stings, though they are not asked to do work nude. Instead, they pose as prostitutes to target johns.

Regardless, Flournoy said 'they are not very comfortable with playing that role.'

Officers arrested three people in a sting at this Florida massage business

Undercover policies vary from department to department across South Florida. In Flournoy's department, he said officers would not engage in behavior that would make a suspect do anything they wouldn't normally do.

How officers behave in undercover stings can later be a factor at the trial.

One of the drawbacks of being nude while on duty is there's no hiding place for a weapon or recording device. In a Boca Raton case, officers visited an escort service called Sara's Entertainment several times and refused to undress because they were wearing a wire.

'Historically, it is a rare occasion when a police officer goes totally naked,' said Fort Lauderdale defense attorney Jamie Benjamin. 'And where it happens, it complicates prosecution.'

Broward County's chief public defender, Howard Finkelstein, said the practice wasn't 'worth it or appropriate.'

'It forces [police] to act badly, and will have zero impact on
prostitution,' Finkelstein said. 'It is seedy, back-alley, icky, and we
don't want our cops doing that, especially so when it's meaningless.'

Flournoy argues that his force has been so successful in busting prostitution in his city's massage parlors that agencies around the state have asked to see how they target cases.